Lab-Grown And Natural Diamonds Are Basically Identical

A diamond can be made in two ways: in the Earth, and in a lab. If you take the Earth route to get yourself a natural stone, you have millions of years to wait as the Earth crushes the future-diamond with enough force and heat to eventually create that familiar sparkly rock. A diamond made in a lab, on the other hand, will take about three months. Oh, and you can totally skip over the whole mining thing when you want to actually retrieve it. For all the work and trouble, the natural stone must be better, right? Not so fast. Natural diamonds are physically and chemically identical to synthetic ones grown in a lab. Lab-grown stones are 25-40% cheaper too. High five, scientists!

Even though lab-grown diamonds are arguably a wiser purchase for environmental, economic, and ethical reasons, they only make up a tiny percent of diamonds sold. The reasons why can vary. For one, lab-grown diamonds could shake up the industry, throwing a wrench in the wheels of industry-dominating natural stone sellers. Find out how the lab-grown diamonds are basically grown from diamond seeds in the video below.